Back in the Limelight

The Virago is finally getting some much needed attention again. The poor 750 has been languishing in the background as we got asked to work on a couple of other bikes. The bike that started it all for us had been collecting dust, patiently waiting for its moment to shine. Well, it definitely got to shine this weekend.

Here’s the shop. It has been pleasantly crowded as of late. There are several damned cool bikes starting to pile up in there.

We decided it was finally time to schedule our photo shoot with Alan Brandt, our ace photographer. The XS850 was just coming together, and we were getting anxious to take some photos to send to Chris over at Exif.

The Virago needed a bit more love to be photo ready, so we set about wrapping up a few last minute details. We installed the new petcocks, built the lanyard for the hood-pin fuel tank holder, installed the fuel lines & carb breathers, and got some decals installed.

We had our local decal shop cut some matt-finish translucent logos for us. The ideas was to have the Spin Cycle logos appear as matt-finish areas on the glossy raw steel. They turned out pretty good. The decals are super subtle; from some angles they cant be seen at all, from others there is lots of contrast. Pretty cool.

We got the Virago all complete (looking) for the shoot. There was still the small outstanding issue of the wiring not being done, err…even started. But that wasn’t going to stop our fun. Yeah, we did this last part a bit out of order, but oh well. Photos first, then we’ll get it running…

We woke up early Saturday morning & hit the local parking garage for a three hour photo shoot with Alan. Alan happens to be a big moto fan, which is incredibly helpful; he understands how to capture the essence of the machines, and seems to be pretty adept at coming up with backdrops that are appropriate to the different bikes.

Here are a few shots that we snapped during the shoot:

Loading them up in the morning. Well, Josh was able to ride the 850 to the shoot. It was the first time the 850 broke cover for public viewing.

Josh, the lighting boom:

The Virago basking in the sun, also its first time out in public:

And, finally, here’s a super secret sneak peak of one of Alan’s amazing photos from the shoot. Stay tuned here and hopefully on Bike EXIF for the full spread.

Thanks Alan for your hard work. Your photos are amazing!!

Oh, we took a little break last weekend for a bit of ‘trigger therapy’. We are rednecks, after all, so we gotta detonate some ammo now and then, right? Pete was in town from Belgium. I don’t think they are allowed to play with guns in Belgium, so he was pretty excited to pop off a few rounds with the 9. The Red Bull cans really didn’t stand a chance against our superior firepower.. I’d call that one a Red-Bullseye!